Question regarding partial mash and steeping grains in the same brew

[J187]

I normally do about 5lbs of grains as a partial mash in every brew I do, I then use a small amount of DME to make up the different - do to limitations of equipment and such. Obviously, my first choice for the grains to mash are those that require mash conversion and/or do not have extract equivalents readily available.

I have a recipe now that has 2.5lbs of Vienna and 2lbs of Munich... leaving me only .5 lb to substitute my main base malt - pilsner, and no room at all for my crystals and carapils, etc. I normally mash all my steeping grains in the 5lbs.

My question is, should I mash the 4.5lbs of Munich and Vienna, with .5 lb of pislner, substitute the rest of the 4.25lbs of pilsner required with extract and then steep the remaining crystals and carapils afterwards?

 

[Captain Damage]

You can steep the crystal if you want. Gordon Strong, president of the BJCP and hombrewing author, is recommending steeping all non-diastatic grains, rather than mashing them these days.

 

[masterfool101]

Why are you limited to 5 lbs in the partial mash? Unless it's an absolute volume thing (as in, your pot only holds so much water), there's no reason not to just do 5.5lbs, and add the appropriate amount of water.

 

[J187]

Why are you limited to 5 lbs in the partial mash? Unless it's an absolute volume thing (as in, your pot only holds so much water), there's no reason not to just do 5.5lbs, and add the appropriate amount of water.

5 Gallon pot on electric stove.

 

[freisste]

Kind of a secondary question (or maybe clarification) - steep before or after mashing? Or doesn't matter as long as there is some sort of rinse or sparge?

 

[stpug]

A 5 gallon cooler can reach a max of ~15 lbs, with 10 lbs being no problem. A 5 gallon pot should also have no problem with 10 lbs. A mash of 10 lbs at 1.25 qt/lb ratio would use up a little under 4 gallons of space. You should be able to do an all grain BIAB batch using some top-up water at the end in your fermenter

 

[unionrdr]

So far,I've mashed 6lbs of grains in 2 gallons of local spring water in my 5 gallon kettle. Sparge with 1.5 gallons @168F for 3.5 gallons boil volume. Keep stiring the wort when it just barely starts the foamy hot break. This'll calm it down quite a bit. I wind up topping off with about 2 gallons of spring water in the fermenter.

 

[masterfool101]

5 Gallon pot on electric stove.

A 5 gallon cooler can reach a max of ~15 lbs, with 10 lbs being no problem. A 5 gallon pot should also have no problem with 10 lbs. A mash of 10 lbs at 1.25 qt/lb ratio would use up a little under 4 gallons of space. You should be able to do an all grain BIAB batch using some top-up water at the end in your fermenter

Right, so St. Pug's got the same idea I was alluding to. Ideally, with a 5 gallon pot, you should have no problem mashing 5.5 pounds of grain. If you use the standard 1.25 quarts water per pound of grain, you need only 6.875 quarts. For ease of use, I round that up to about 7 quarts (a little extra water won't hurt in this instance). That's just shy of 2 gallons. Even with grain space, you'll have more than enough room in a 5 gallon pot to do a BIAB mash.

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah,there's def plenty of roomin my 5G kettle for 6 pounds of grain & 2 gallons of water. Maybe up your base grains to 2lbs,giving 6.5lbs total. that'd work quite easilly.